Hayley Atwell To Star In Gender-Swapping ‘Measure For Measure’ On West End

Hayley Atwell will star with Dunkirk‘s Jack Lowden in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, part of the upcoming season at the West End’s Donmar Warehouse. Within each performance the pair will alternate the male and female roles of the puritan Lord Angelo and Isabella in the tale of civil vs moral justice, gender and power set in a corrupt Vienna.

In the play, Angelo uses ancient laws to sentence citizens to death for sexual misconduct. But when religious Novice Isabella pleads for clemency, their encounter leaves the him guilty of the very crime the law condemns.

Donmar artistic director Josie Rourke’s production imagines the setting in both the play’s original year of performance, 1604, as well as in 2018.

The production is set to run September 28-November 24.

Atwell has been nominated for two Olivier Awards for A View from the Bridge and The Pride, and her UK theatre credits include Dry Powder, The Faith Machine, The Man of Mode, Major Barbara, Women Beware Women and Prometheus Bound.

Atwell, who currently stars in Starz’s limited series Howards End, is repped by CAA and Hamilton Hodell.